Episode Overview

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Khaled A. Beydoun, "The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims"
Host: Imani Antar
Guest: Professor Khaled A. Beydoun
Date: January 17, 2026

This episode explores Professor Khaled A. Beydoun’s book, The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims, delving into the legal, personal, and global dynamics of Islamophobia in the post-9/11 era. Through in-depth discussion, Beydoun addresses how state and social bigotry against Muslims have become systematized globally, and reflects on law, personal narrative, and the imperative of centering lived experience in scholarship. The conversation traverses countries and contexts—France, India, China, New Zealand, Kenya, and beyond—probing how Islamophobia manifests, endures, and is resisted.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal and Academic Trajectory

Timestamps: 03:03–05:31

• Beydoun discusses his Detroit upbringing among Arab and Muslim war refugees, which exposed him early to both private and state anti-Muslim bigotry.
• Early influences include scholars like Edward Said and James Baldwin, who examined law’s role in subjugation.
• "I was a different kind of teenager...it was always, you know, scholars and intellectuals...who were trying to really reckon with how the law specifically as an instrument in subjugating people..." (03:57–04:16)

2. Methodological Shifts & Book’s Ethnographic Approach

Timestamps: 05:31–08:41

• Contrasts writing hyper-technical law review articles with the book’s more narrative, humanizing, and ethnographic style.
• Emphasizes foregrounding the firsthand stories and lived realities of Muslims across the globe.
• "The process of writing a book...It's an opportunity to sort of step away from the hyper-technical process...writing in a way that is more liberating...to humanize the subjects..." (06:23–06:49)

3. Intentionality and Weaving Personal into Political

Timestamps: 08:41–11:52

• Shares story of Khalsum, a Somali elder in Kenya, and how witnessing her regain her sight became a metaphor for both literal and intellectual blindness regarding Muslims in the West.
• The choice to blend personal narrative with political analysis was initially unintentional, arising organically from lived experience.
• "It was such, you know, for me, like, we take a lot of stuff...for granted...But for me...just seeing that in a very...intimate basis was really transformative because it...spoke to the kind of political and intellectual blindness that really straddles how the West views Islam and views Muslims like Khalsum." (10:32–11:23)

4. Centering Narrative and Critical Race Theory

Timestamps: 12:56–16:20

• Critiques academia’s reluctance to include the voices of those directly affected by Islamophobia, due to a misplaced sense of scholarly objectivity.
• Beydoun draws from critical race theory, especially Richard Delgado’s "A Plea for Narrative," emphasizing integrating marginalized voices within theory.
• "The theory or the dominant narrative is not doing justice to the actual experiences of marginalized communities unless and until you integrate the experiences of those marginalized communities within the intellectual project." (14:39–14:59)

5. Radicalization Theory and Security State

Timestamps: 17:16–21:38

• Unpacks how the “counter-radicalization” and “countering violent extremism” policies (especially during Obama’s tenure) have pathologized Muslim identity.
• Notes the double-standard: Muslims’ liberties are contingent on their utility to the security state.
• "Muslims cannot exercise those liberties in ways that are sort of in alignment with their convictions. They have to exercise those liberties in ways that serve the security state." (21:23–21:35)

6. Manifest Destiny, Imperialism, and the War on Terror

Timestamps: 22:21–25:37

• Links post-9/11 U.S. policy to the historical concept of Manifest Destiny, not geographically but geopolitically, as an effort to reshape world order with Islam and Muslims as the "oppositional enemy."
• Cites Deepa Kumar’s framing of Islamophobia as an imperial project: "The war on terror, to me, was very much an American Manifest Destiny crusade...an imperial project." (24:23–25:18)

7. Orientalism as the Mother of Islamophobia

Timestamps: 26:12–30:09

• Describes Islamophobia as a modern spawn of Orientalism, now primarily advanced and encoded through law.
• Law’s coercive and legitimizing power amplifies state-sponsored Islamophobia.
• "I view Islamophobia as being the sort of like modern/postmodern emanation or spawn of Orientalism...Islamophobia as being a fundamentally legal project enabled by...legislation, law and policy..." (26:37–28:44)

8. India's CAA and the Globalization of Anti-Muslim Policy

Timestamps: 30:09–34:29

• Discusses India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) under Modi and the BJP as a parallel to Trump’s Muslim Ban, aimed at both foreign and indigenous Muslims.
• Details how bureaucratic exclusion strips working-class Muslims of their Indian identity.
• "The CAA was also being deployed against these rural, impoverished, working class, disaffected Muslim Indians to claim that they were in fact Indian citizens, but in fact foreigners." (33:15–33:37)

9. Exile, Ethnic Cleansing, and Rohingya Muslims

Timestamps: 34:29–38:06

• Explores the lived trauma of exile among Rohingya refugees, highlighting the stories of Fatima and others.
• Exile is the culmination of ethnic cleansing, preceded by harrowing violence and displacement.
• "Exile, in many respects...is the final stage of the ethnic cleansing and the persecution that people experience...the depths of its horror...weren't really distilled until I met people like Fatima." (35:36–37:57)

10. Christchurch Attack and the Double Standard in Terrorism

Timestamps: 38:06–42:51

• Analyzes the global neglect of white supremacist terrorism compared to relentless focus on Islamist terror.
• Western media tendencies humanize white perpetrators and anonymize Muslim victims—Beydoun aims to reverse this.
• "There's always this, like, media penchant to flesh out every dimension of his or her life in ways that are humanizing. However, the Muslim victims are reduced and flattened to nameless and anonymous statistics. So for me, I wanted to flip the script. I wanted to humanize the victim." (42:18–42:51)

11. Merging the Autobiographical with the Analytical

Timestamps: 42:51–48:12

• Discusses blending his own story and family’s journey with critical analysis, motivated by empathy and experience.
• Stresses the importance of conveying the emotional texture of Islamophobia, not just legal frameworks.

12. Writing, Resistance, and the Future

Timestamps: 48:12–52:10

• Ends on the power of writing as catharsis, resistance, and mobilization, quoting Teju Cole: "Writing is writing. Writing is writing. Writing is writing. On the best days, all three."
• Observes that social media and digital writing have amplified resistance, especially among youth and marginalized voices.

13. Gaza, Netanyahu, and the Evolution of Islamophobia

Timestamps: 52:10–55:38

• Notes how the Israeli state’s use of war-on-terror language post-October 7 illustrates the global spread and intensification of Islamophobia.
• The circulation of dehumanizing images and rhetoric continues to mobilize public support for violence against Muslims.
• "That, to me, was the most sort of damning illustration of how state actors try to pedal Islamophobia to mobilize publics in support of the most gruesome and horrific forms of war and genocide." (54:32–54:51)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On integrating lived experience:
  "The theory or the dominant narrative is not doing justice to the actual experiences of marginalized communities unless and until you integrate the experiences of those marginalized communities within the intellectual project." – Khaled Beydoun (14:39)

• On radicalization theory:
  “What’s fundamentally sort of bigoted about radicalization theory is that...the fundamental prism of scrutinizing Muslim identity is through this rubric of terrorism.” – Khaled Beydoun (18:52)

• On the global project of Islamophobia:
  “The war on terror, to me, was very much an American...Manifest Destiny crusade. Right. And that's what George Bush called it. It was an opportunity to...expand American...geopolitical borders.” – Khaled Beydoun (24:23)

• On writing as resistance:
  “Writing is not only a cathartic sort of exercise, but it's also a prescriptive exercise, but also an exercise that can galvanize and mobilize others to see the world in the ways that you think are just and correct.” – Khaled Beydoun (49:39)

• On the future of Islamophobia:
  "I think under this current sort of global order spearheaded by Netanyahu and Trump, that Islamophobia is becoming far more violent and nefarious than it was even when I wrote the book." – Khaled Beydoun (55:31)

Important Timestamps

• 03:31 — Beydoun’s personal background and influences
• 06:20 — Contrasting legal academic writing with narrative approaches
• 09:28 — The transformative metaphor of witnessing Khalsum regain her sight
• 12:56 — Why academia hasn’t centered Muslim voices
• 17:16 — The origins and problems with radicalization theory
• 22:21 — War on terror and Manifest Destiny
• 26:12 — Orientalism and the legal project of Islamophobia
• 30:09 — India’s Citizenship Amendment Act as a tool of anti-Muslim policy
• 34:29 — Exile and ethnic cleansing among Rohingya
• 38:06 — Christchurch: white supremacy and the double standard in terrorism
• 42:51 — Humanizing Muslim victims vs. media coverage of white perpetrators
• 48:12 — Power of writing for resistance
• 52:10 — Gaza, genocide, and the globalization of Islamophobia

Closing

The episode ends with Beydoun reflecting on current and future projects, including work on liberal Islamophobia and the intersection of sport, race, religion, and global soccer. Throughout, he emphasizes the moral and political necessity of amplifying marginalized voices, deploying narrative as both evidence and resistance, and the ongoing evolution of Islamophobia as shaped by both state actors and global political currents.